Breaking New Ground: Modernizing the Army for better tactical connectivity

Several modernization initiatives in the Canadian Army have underscored the importance for a robust network capability to support a full spectrum of operations between headquarters, formations and units. Past efforts in Libya and Afghanistan have also emphasized this longstanding capability gap, where fielded network equipment did not allow for seamless sharing of critical information.

And with a range of possible
scenarios in the future–from peacekeeping, to counterinsurgency, to full out
war–“the Army must be network-enabled, capable of exchanging information
laterally and vertically, between sensors, weapons, vehicles and command and
control nodes, and enabling information accessibility by the right person at
the right time,” according to Designing Canada’s Army of Tomorrow, a key
document in Army 2021 planning.

Now consider a highly
integrated tactical communications infrastructure that is assured and secured
with active cyber defence, with more than enough bandwidth to provide dismounted leaders access to all
of the traditional and non-traditional Intelligence, Surveillance, and
Reconnaissance (ISR) sources, the Common Operating Picture (COP), and the digital
networks that are critical to maintaining end-to-end situational awareness.
This capability would allow CAF to maximise and
re-capitalise the utilization of in-service tactical communication systems with
a modern approach to information management and networking, making use of private
sector communications technology, including increased satcom bandwidth for new
and emerging data transit requirements, expanded utilization of Link 16
communications for increased air-to-ground situational awareness, a
“commander’s dashboard” for network and cyber monitoring, and Anti-Jam (AJ) and
Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) over commercial Ka band satcom for
operations in Anti-Access Area-Denial (A2AD) environments.

Viasat is one of the communications companies that is bringing this end-to-end capability forward and urging the DND to take advantage of the accelerated development cycles, substantially higher research and development funding, and advanced technology available within the private sector.

Modern private
sector communications networks, such as this “Hybrid Adaptive Network”
architecture, provide substantially greater performance, resilience, security,
scalability, and cost-effectiveness than their government purpose-built
counterparts. This performance gap will
continue to widen as the private sector continues to apply agile development processes
and accelerate research and development in order to create competitive
advantage in the multi-billion dollar communication market. Due to their longer acquisition and
development cycles, future government purpose-built systems will be at least one
generation behind the technology and performance curve on the day they become
operational, and they will grow more obsolete over the course of their fielded
life-cycle.

Ken Peterman, Viasat’s
president of government systems, also recommends the government and commercial
sector look to be interoperable at the network layer to provide warfighters
with a seamless, resilient, agile, and protected satcom network available
everywhere. This Hybrid Adaptive Network would enable new,
cutting-edge commercial technologies to be used interchangeably with other
services as well as existing DND purpose-built systems, rapidly
delivering enhanced resilience at an affordable price.

At the present time, the CAF
operates over WGS and purchases communications bandwidth on an as-required
basis from commercial satellites. While this has been sufficient to date,
future requirements and emerging threats from near-peer adversaries have
highlighted the critical need to improve secure communications. Moving from an exclusively closed-government network
(acquisition-based model) to a platform that is shared with commercial network
providers (market-based competition model) sets up an open-standards
marketplace for satellite services for the DND, encourages innovation, reduces
the risk of adding new types of networks in the future, and provides an easy
path to interoperability.

Recent joint exercises in the United States have already demonstrated the promise of this architecture for empowering ground forces to fight whenever and wherever they are needed. With these modernization initiatives, the Army will have a network that is not only ubiquitous, but also sufficiently robust to support the evermore extensive use of battlefield data, even in the face of the emerging threats from near-peer adversaries.

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Vanguard is Canada’s oldest trade journal of record that provides a forum for Canada’s security and defence community, discussing strategic perspectives and overviews of government and military policy and practice, through interviews with leading practitioners and contributions from renowned experts, including representatives from industry.